Grand Chien collapses, the president is gone, and here you are hiring mercenaries by the hour.

When the community picks on gut instinct, no criterion attached, Jagged Alliance 3 lands ahead of nearly three quarters of all games. Solid. The desert island companion follows the same line, ahead of 81% of titles, which makes sense for a tactical game you can chew on for hundreds of hours. But look at what sits just underneath. Attachment and the wish to rediscover it both drop near the bottom, ahead of only a fifth of the field. Fun sits mid pack, so does the feel with a controller in hand, art style and soundtrack a touch below. All of it on few votes, so take it as a first sketch, but the shape is clear: you happily bring it along, you do not really bond with it.

That fits turn based tactics perfectly, a genre that hooks you through its systems long before it hooks your heart. Next to the XCOM or Wasteland crowd, Jagged Alliance 3 sells mechanical depth and a cast of loud mercenaries, not an emotional gut punch.

So, who is it for? For you if you love building a squad, juggling big personalities and watching a plan unfold exactly as drawn, or blow up spectacularly. Much less so if you want the game that stays lodged in your chest months later.